The present invention relates to the construction of dental handpieces and, in particular, to the provision of a handpiece assembly removably coupled to the supply hose.
In recent years, the epidemic of blood carried diseases, such as AIDS, has placed a severe problem in the hands of dentists and dental technicians. Cleaning and sterilizing dental instruments, especially the handpiece, using the old conventional methods are no longer safe and secure. To remove any apprehension that contaminated blood would remain on or in the handpiece being transferred from one patient to the next, it would be desirable to have individual handpieces assigned to and used only by single, individual patients.
Burs are made to be detachable from the handpiece in order to rapidly change to a different bur. Burs, however, are small and not the only part of the handpiece entering the mouth and coming into contact with blood and other contaminants. The head of the handpiece and part of the sheath enters the mouth as well.
Because the handpiece is manipulated with great force and is required to undergo twisting and rotative movements in the mouth, the sheath is normally connected to the supply hose in a permanent manner. Thus, even if it is possible to remove the bur, the equally contaminated sheath cannot easily be removed either for replacement or for cleaning and sterilization.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a handpiece in which the foregoing problem is obviated by constructing a handpiece assembly which is easily detachable from the supply hose.
Among the advantages of the present invention is the ability to provide each patient with his or her own assembly which the patient will take home and bring back on each visit to the dentist. The patient may then clean and sterilize the assembly so that the patient will have complete assurance that it will not be contaminated with another patient's blood.
In order to obtain a detachable handpiece, it is a further object of the present invention to provide an improved coupling by which the handpiece is held to the supply hose.
These objects and advantages, together with others, will be apparent from the following disclosure of the present invention.